French Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Sarah Knafo, delivered a high-level speech, urging the European Union (EU) to adopt a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” as part of a broader effort to promote financial independence and combat inflationary pressures.
A French judge and member of the Court of Accounts, Knafo’s background includes public service and political consulting, most notably for right-wing Jewish presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. Knafo’s public role has been steadily rising since her election to the European Parliament in 2024.
Why the EU needs a strategic Bitcoin reserve
In her speech on the floor of Parliament, Knafo cited global examples – citing El Salvador’s early adoption of Bitcoin and political figures such as former US President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell – to underscore a growing wave of institutional acceptance. She stressed that the European Union’s current financial strategies put member states at a disadvantage within what she described as a rapidly evolving monetary landscape.
“Already three years ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, the president of El Salvador decided to invest for the benefit of his country in cryptocurrencies,” Knavo said, referring to El Salvador’s Legal Tender Law of 2021. “At that time, he was hated by the political class and the Fund International Monetary. Today, its level has increased by 100%.”
Underscoring the missed opportunity for EU countries, Knafo said El Salvador’s move had resulted in significant capital gains, resources which she said the country had used to strengthen its country’s “security and sovereignty.” Turning to the United States, she acknowledged that “Donald Trump will create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin for the United States.”
Knafo also cited Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s public stance, noting that “Jerome Powell (…) is now talking about it as ‘digital gold.'” These developments have been positioned as indicators that other major economies are adapting to decentralized finance, while… Knafo added that “the European Union (…) continues to accumulate a tragic inflationary deficit,” in light of the existing regulatory measures that she criticized and described as excessively restrictive.
“We don’t want this dystopian world,” Knafo warned, referring to the European Central Bank’s work on a digital euro. “Tomorrow a European bureaucrat will be able to block us from certain transactions and even exclude us from the banking system with the click of a button because of something we say on social networks.”
Throughout her speech, Knafo called for a comprehensive shift in EU financial policy: “It is time to say no to the totalitarian temptations of the European Central Bank, which wants to force the digital euro entirely into its own hands (…) It is time to bet on freedom.”
She went on to defend the EU’s booming Bitcoin mining sector, suggesting that France’s nuclear power infrastructure could provide a competitive advantage. “We French hold our nuclear trump cards,” she said, positioning domestic power generation as an untapped enabler for large-scale mining operations.
Knafo also addressed the need to amend current tax policies, urging lawmakers to “stop taxing crypto holders” and emphasizing that crypto asset holders take personal risks to generate their wealth. She described the current government deficit as directly fueling inflation and economic instability: “Government deficits that drive money creation (…) create inflation, which leads to chaos (…) Let them protect themselves from the crazy spiral you have created.”
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $106,947.
Featured image created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
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